481 Detained in Paris As Armored Vehicles Arrive to Gear Up for New Round of Mayhem

Local Editor

Several armored vehicles belonging to the French Gendarmerie – the military police – have arrived in Paris, which is bracing for another wave of Yellow Vest protests.

The hardware has been seen taking up positions near the iconic Arc de Triomphe, one of the major hotspots of recent clashes between law enforcement and protesters.

It comes after Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Thursday promised some 8,000 additional officers for the capital and 89,000 nationwide for reinforcement. The deployment of the armored vehicles in an urban area is the first since 2005 when riots broke out in the Paris suburbs.

Early Saturday, police detained 278 people in Paris as the French capital braced for another weekend of violence. Though the number of detained protesters swarmed to 481 individuals. At least 34 of them remain in police custody after officers found masks, hammers and stones during their searches.

Also Saturday, French police fired the first batches of tear gas. Videos from the area show people coughing and sneezing after tear gas canisters were fired into the lines of demonstrators.

The French Gendarmerie is a military police force which works under the jurisdiction of both the Interior and Defense Ministries.

This is the fourth consecutive Saturday of Yellow Vests protests, with levels of violence between police and demonstrators that has not been seen in decades. Last week, the unrest peaked again, resulting in over 400 arrests. Scores of people were also injured during the heavy-handed police response. Officers also suffered injuries while trying to handle the situation.

Previous weekend protests turned into street battles between police and thousands of demonstrators, angered at planned fuel price hikes and a tax increase. Even though the government dropped the plans, the Yellow Vests promised more rallies.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team